Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Subsidies for All?

The reintroduction of subsidies for US farmers will ease the pressure of the recession for the US. However, this is a move that puts many countries including New Zealand into a less than desirable position. Subsides mean that the farmers receiving a subsidy will continue to produce products, possibly more (because it is cheaper), and thus the market suffers. It suffers because the price of the product drops due to over supply or US farmers being able to supply product at a cheaper price, therefore developing countries or smaller countries will struggle to sell their product and or struggle to sell it at a price which covers production etc. Not only is this move selfish in the face of a global recession by an economic super power. But also hypocritical to revoke subsidy privileges from developing countries, while applying them to your own( yes WTO has done this). Developing countries will continue to suffer under unfair trade rules in this recession. The millennium Development goals including, the reduction of global poverty by half by 2015 in the light of this, become harder and unlikely to be met. In the face of this big global issue we need to ask, What Can I Do?• buy locally, • buy fairtrade or other ethically produced products from developingcountries.• http://www.avaaz.org/en/ A site to petition world leaders on current issues• Email our Ministers of Foreign affairs and Trade & share your concerns: Murray McCully mmccully@ministers.govt.nz. Tim Grosser (associate) tgroser@ministers.govt.nz.

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